GUARDS! News

[h2]Attention Recruits![/h2][p][/p][p]As you may know from our previous update, we found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't actively work on GUARDS! as much as we'd like due to the ongoing console port.

We are really happy that you all want more GUARDS!. We want more GUARDS! too, so over the last few months we have been hard at work trying to figure out a way we could make it happen.

First, a little bit about what is in the update.

One of the biggest bits of feedback we get from reviews and players is that the game is too hard. Punishingly hard. Hard games are ok, but when the players don't know what killed them or why the mission was failed, it can cause alot of frustration.

With that in mind we consulted our friends over at UXIF who gave us some feedback on the game and even helped us with the implementation of the following improvements:[/p][h3]
UNBLOCKABLE ENEMY[/h3][p]Some of the tougher enemies in the game cannot be blocked. Which always comes as a surprise to new guards the first time they get destroyed by a hammer wielding punk. Now unblockable enemies will glow red, to highlight the fact that they are more dangerous than a regular perp.
[/p][h3]ENEMY BEHIND SENSOR[/h3][p]Not the snappiest name, but it's pretty descriptive. When an enemy is behind you, a red chevron will draw on the screen to alert you to their presence. Think of it like your character hearing footsteps as someone rushes up from behind them.

This feature was single-handedly responsible for saving my life multiple times in the first mission alone. It is particularly useful when a perp has managed to disguise themselves as a corpse and then tries to jump you when you've moved onto clear another room.[/p][p][/p][h3]OBJECTIVE GLOW[/h3][p]We now highlight import items in the world gold and icon in world space. This allows guards to spot them more easily amongst the chaos and makes it easier to make sure nothing kills / destroys them.

It also solves the "last objective" issue, where you end up back tracking through the level to find the last hostage, or last crate. Now they are much easier to see from a distance.[/p][p][/p][h3]HEALING ITEM GLOW[/h3][p]Pretty straight forward. Now healing items glow green. It means you can spot them much more easily in the debris.[/p][p][/p][h3]🚨 THE IMPORTANT PART 🚨[/h3][p]Now, some of you might be thinking "But where are the new districts / new enemies / new weapons / etc. ?!" [/p][p][/p][p]We wanted to put out a small update first, as a test, to see how difficult it would be to bring in extra outside support and patch the game while the console version is still being worked on.

If it all goes smoothly, then we will be able to get more ambitious and add more stuff. If it is a nightmare, then we will need to resume our original plan of waiting until the console version is finished.

I wanted to be as transparent as possible about this update, since I know I didn't do a great job of communicating what was happening with the game before. GUARDS! is our first game as a team, so we're still learning alot about communicating with you and the wider community.

Finally, if you would like to be invited to playtest some of the new features and improvements for GUARDS! sign up to our MAILING LIST where we will be sending out information about how to get into the private test realm.

Thanks for your support!

== The GUARDS! Team == [/p]

Hello Recruits!

People frequently ask if there will be future updates for GUARDS! and we're really happy that the game has found enough of an audience that there is demand for more medieval justice!

The short answer is: "We don't know!" but read on for more info!

First, some context:

GUARDS! was our first project as a team, and early on in development we decided to launch as a full release as opposed to early access. The reason being we had no idea how well the game would perform, and put simply, we didn't want to make promises for future improvements that we couldn't keep! If the game didn't sell we wouldn't be able to support it longer-term and it would have persisted in early access as yet another dreaded "dead game".

With that in mind we committed to releasing a version of the game we would feel comfortable calling feature complete and carry out any bug fixes and major improvements in the window immediately after launch. (I think we did about 9 or 10 updates in the month following release!)

Shortly afterwards, we had the opportunity to work on a console version. This is obviously great news as it brings GUARDS! to an even larger audience, although it does mean there are a few other considerations that need to be taken into account. These being:

1) Adding new features essentially increases the amount of work required and extending how long it takes to complete the port.

2) We're obligated to keep parity between the PC and console versions (i.e. if we make something for PC it also has to be on console). Whilst this is possible, it does mean we need to be a bit more considered in how we release content. Pushing an update on steam is relatively quick and simple, but on console... not so much.

Hindsight is 20:20 and if we'd have known how popular the game would be, we'd probably have done things a little differently. We have definitely learnt from the experience of launching GUARDS! and any future games we make will definitely launch into early access first!

Once again, we're really grateful for the interest in the game, and we definitely consider this a "good problem to have". We have so many cool ideas for things we want to add to the game and ways to expand the GUARDS! universe. Once the console version is complete we'll be in a much better position to see what that looks like.

So the tl;dr is:

- We are really happy that GUARDS! found a much bigger audience than any of us expected
- We made some decisions early on that mean we skipped the traditional EA > Full release route
- Our current priority is finishing the console version
- We want to make more GUARDS! stuff

If you made it this far - thanks! One of the great things about being a smaller indie team is we can be way more transparent about the development of the game. If you want to chat more about GUARDS! and what the future has in store, we have a pretty active community over on our Discord channel!



Thanks!

-- The GUARDS! Team --

Greetings GUARDS!

While the core team has been hard at work on the console version of GUARDS!, we've had a couple of people working on a concept for our next title - and you can play the demo now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2937090/Hunters_Inc/

Hunters Inc. is a 1-4 player co-op melee FPS featuring rampaging Orc hunters, gigantic monsters to slay and procedurally generated environments teeming with deadly flora and fauna.

Track giant monsters, cut them up, get the parts back to your airship and get paid! Of course - it won't be easy, but those who make it back alive will be rewarded with loot they need to upgrade their hunter witha wide variety of new weapons and equipment.



If you enjoyed the brutal melee combat of GUARDS! you are bound to enjoy the improved combat system in Hunters, Inc. Improving the core combat system was the number #1 piece of feedback we received about our first game and we have been hard at work giving it a significant overhaul. We'd love to hear what you think!



For more details, check out Hunters, Inc. on Steam. The game launches later this year but you can play the game now!



For those of you eagerly awaiting news about the future of GUARDS! - we hope to have the console port wrapped up this summer. In the meantime, check out this post that goes into more detail about the current plan for future GUARDS! content.

Greetings GUARDS!

We are so excited to announce our next game Hunters, Inc! That’s right, we have been hard at work building upon the foundation we laid with GUARDS! and you can play our new game today on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2937090/Hunters_Inc/

Hunters Inc. is a 1-4 player co-op melee FPS featuring rampaging Orc hunters, gigantic monsters to slay and procedurally generated environments teeming with deadly flora and fauna.

Hunters, Inc. provides a new take on combat for fans of GUARDS! or players that enjoy FPS melee games. Track giant monsters, cut them up, get the parts back to your airship and get paid! Of course - it won't be easy, but those who make it back alive will be rewarded with loot and the parts needed to upgrade their hunter and craft a wide variety of new weapons and equipment.



If you enjoyed the brutal melee combat of GUARDS! you are sure to enjoy the improved combat system in Hunters, Inc. It was the number #1 piece of feedback we received about the first game and we have been hard at work giving it a significant overhaul.



For more details, check out Hunters, Inc. on Steam. The game launches later this year but you can play the game now!



Finally - we'd like to invite you to come hang out with the Hunters, Inc. Team on our Discord Channel! We love to hear feedback from the community and answer any questions that you have about the game.

We have some exciting news from our team - our next game HUNTERS, INC. has just been revealed and you can sign up to get invited to the playtest over on the Steam page.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2937090/Hunters_Inc/


[h2]What's In the Closed Alpha Playtest[/h2]

• Orcs!
  
• Our first Class - the Berserker. Straight forward monster smasher extraordinaire
  
• Our first biome - Bluemane Savannah
  
• Procedurally generated maps with a variety of hazards and endemic life
  
• TWO! target monsters to hunt - the Slimesnapper and Spider Queen
  
• The ability to dismember monsters and harvesting their bits!
  
• XP and Levelling System
  
• New primary and Secondary weapons to purchase
  
• Weapon upgrades to unlock and purchase
  
• FIVE difficulty modes
  

[h2]Solo / Multiplayer[/h2]
The game is playable in solo and multiplayer, and we'd love to get feedback from both solo players and groups.

To start a multiplayer session either invite your friends through steam or join a session in progress via the join button on the main menu.


[h2]Let Us Know What You Think![/h2]
One of the great things about being a small, independent team is that we can be significantly more open with development and share the game with you significantly much on.

We’ve been playing the game a lot internally and are really excited to get the public playtest underway to get gathering some extremely valuable and much needed external feedback.

The best place to give us feedback is in the feedback from linked from inside the game, but we will also be keeping an eye on the feedback on the official Steam Forum and Discord Channel.


[h2]Availability[/h2]
Since this is a Closed Alpha there may not be room for everyone - so if you are interested in playing we suggest signing up ASAP! Don't worry though - this is the first of many playtests so there will be more opportunities to play. If you'd like to be notified of future playtests make sure to hit the "FOLLOW" button on the main store page


We hope you have fun in the playtest, and as always, we greatly appreciate your feedback!